Elder Myers Dec 28, 2009

hey everyone! i love you!
first off thanks so much for the christmas stuff! it is much appreciated! i didnt have any snack food before christmas and now i have too much! haha

yeah it was great talking to you!i love you all! i dont think that i was too distracted or anything i did feel kind of weird afterward that night but it wasnt anything big so dont worry! this week it will be back to normal (almost, we have to be in by 6 on the 31st and 1st) but im doing great so far in terms of adjusting. like you said its hard but i have done a lot of hard stuff before and i know that i can get through it especially with the help of the lord.

we had a baptism yesterday- anthony our blind investigator... it went well but it was pretty stressful getting it organized and all that, especially because it was right after christmas and there was a lot of people out of town. there is def a shortage of piano players in the ward (especially the spanish ward- sometimes we have to sing accapella! i always wish i had cole's piano talents! cole- i heard you got second in illinois for a young composers thing! nice job! congrats! as always im astounded by your musical talents because that world is so foreign to me! haha but yeah def keep up piano etc for the mission-like i said, it will come in handy- no one in our zone can play the piano except forone or two people and they say they arent good, the zone leaders are always asking "can anyone play the piano????!" i wish i could say i could... so yeah, keep it up! and leading music! thats easy for you i know but i made a fool of myself once trying to do a fast 6/8 song... i kind of just waved my hand... im practicing with my companion though! haha)

that was really random but yeah. this sunday we have our first baptism into the spanish ward! its the chavez family, i ithink i told you their names and everyhting but i know that i told you about them before. they are really nice! and of course im really excited about that.

not too many new things have happened since we talked last... except my companion and i eating garretts popcorn at almost every meal that we eat in our apartment...!

give everyone my love!
im sorry i am so bad at responding/writing letters! im still getting into the groove of the field... and as im sure everyone all knows im a very distracted person and so yeah... sometimes im distracted just when i walk down the street in LA, i dont ever remember being this spacey... maybe its just that i have never had a person follow me around all day... haha but that doesnt mean i wont write! that sounded kinda bad but im just noticing that...

i love you!

Elder Myers Dec 21, 2009

merry christmas everyone!!!!
i cant believe it is already almost christmas here! i know i always talk about the weather but it really is throwing me off! my companion almost got sun burnt the day before yesterday and we were hot in our short sleeve button downs! (the high was 79!)
ok enough of me rubbing in about our warm weather!

some random things that i want to talk about in more detail from last weeks email (im so sorry that it got deleted, i am just going to have to copy periodically)
but the LA temple is ginormous! its so majestic sitting up on the hill! and LA is so dirty that it really stands out! when you are standing on temple hill you can see a lot of the city (because the city bounderies are ridiculous! it just keeps going on and on and on and on!) but yeah you get a really amazing view of the LA smog! and when we went it was a 630 session so we got there when it was pitch black so we got to enjoy all the christmas lights on the trees and bushes on the grounds. i loved the lights on all the palm trees! haha)
after that we went to santa monica. i loved it and it was quite an adventure to get out there on the bus, but we really needed to go shopping (to get white shirts with pockets of course) and it was elder cooleys old area and we would be semi close because we were at the temple so we decided to go. anyway we shopped on the 35d st promenode (sp) we walked on ocean ave in between pico and california streets. we got to see the santa monica pier from a distance. circus olay (sp so i did it semi phoentically, i can only handle spelling in spanish and english at the moment..,. haha) and so they had huge tents out for that. the coast is pretty cool, pretty similar to what i have seen of florida... we also got to see hotel california, as i guessed it was pretty small... anway what streets did you work on/stay at when you go to work there dad? i loved it! it was very different from our area- it was the first time i had seen name brand stores (except downtown but we dont go there that often- like 2-3 times a week and even then only to skidrow, so we dont usually walk around downtown...) anyway yeah the only name brands are one burger king and one taco bell oh and one KFC... haha other than that its all lavanderias (laundry mats), pupuserias (one of my new favorite foods! (pupusas)), 99c stores (we shopped at one today that is in a really sweet neighboorhood like a 3 min bus ride from our apt. its like a mexican version of canal st except there is not that many people on the street, but there is still a lot...) anyway back to what i was saying about santa monica- i was actually kind of disgusted by all the materialism and plastic surgery and just all around vanity but then i realized that it was exactly like the north shore just plus palm trees and good weather... but all in all i liked santa monica... some place i would love visisting outside of the mission but not to work in during the mission. i better watch what i say though with transfers coming up hahaha (we find out where we are going tomorrow night at like 930 and if we are moving we move on wed...)

as for whats going on in our area- i love it! we had a baptism in the beginnning of december and we are having another one this sunday! i also got to preform the confirmation at chuirch in front of everyone for steven (the 17 kid who we baptized in the beginning of december... he is a great kid- i think i have talked about him before... he always does his reading and nothing phases him, he is really mellow- even more so than seth or pete haha)
and the baptism we have this sunday is a 38 blind man who lives with his mom. they are both english investigators (our only ones) but they are both mexican but grew up speaking english so they are more comfortable speaking english... his mom didnt really like us (well the church) but we wrote her a letter and then she soften up- she talked to us for the first time this past sunday when we went to make sure that anthony (38 blind guy- he is blind because he got shot 3 years ago and his eye balls popped out...pretty intense....) was going to be at church...
and then on the 3rd we have a whole family that is getting baptized! they are amazing! like every latin family they always give us a little somethign to eat and drink when we visit. (its like part of the latin culture that its rude/not good hosting to not offer people at least a drink even if they are only going to be there for 5 mins)anyway the mom (maria) the dad (tomas) the daughter (ana) the niece (gisele) the brother (of maria) (jorge-30s) will all be baptized... they also have jasmin (3) and tomas (almost 1ish) who of course wont be getting baptized. it was so nice when they came to church (they went up to the valley this past sunday so they couldnt come...) but i wasnt there- i was at the english ward but elder cooley got to sit with all of them!

so yeah, staying busy! we dont really know what we are doing for christmas dinner (we have tentative plans to go to the fam chavez (the above described family) on christmas eve- we wont be staying up with them til 12 because thats when as latin culture dictates you open the presents- christmas day doesnt really exist for them, just sleeping all day... so its pretty similar to new years... and for christmas day with the less active family that we had thanksgiving with... we have to be in by 6 on both nights and we are going to a soup kitchen for service from 10-2 on christmas day... i think just my zone is doing that but we'll see. i know service on christmas is a mission wide thing though...) but to be honest im kind of glad that we have to be in by 6- ill be able to fnish the book of mormon ( i dont know if i told you but in connection of our "white christmas miracle goal" of baptizing 80 poeple in december as a mission we are reading the new testament and book of mormon in our native lang and highlighting the miracles in them) and call you! and tracting and inturrupting family time would be kind of a bad rep for mormonism considering we are all about families! haha

but I LOVE YOU!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!!
im sorry i couldnt get you guys presents!
i hope you enjoyed the christmas cards- when i send the memory card home can you (sarah) put up the good ones on facebook? please! there are 700+ so that will be quite a fun task... im sorry! ill try to delete as many of the bad ones as i can before sending the card... inlist my familys help! yay! thanks so much for running my facebook, i didnt think it would be super helpful since i was NEVER on it last summer/spring but people have already written me saying they have been keeping up with me through f book and you and my family (i love they train of info there...) anyway thanks so much!

I LOVE (everyone)!!!
will

Elder Myers Dec 15, 2009

we had a baptism! i confirmed him last sun
working with fam (5 all with a bap date)
went to temple! huge and beatiful!!!
went to santa monica on temple p day last wed looking for shirts
saw pier from ocean ave
zone conf yesterday with x mas dinner. 3 zones were there= half misson or 80 missionaries.
love my area! transfer day is 23. i think ill stay here.,...
love yopu so much!!!!!
sorry to hear about jack! and sorry about other long email!
all is well with me dont worry mom!

Elder Myers Nov 30, 2009

hey everyone i dont have much time because i spent most of my time reading emails but i need to get some info out to everyone:

i can ONLY send and recieve email from my family (siblings parents and grandparents) everyone else i will have to write/recieve snail mail:

Elder Mark William Myers
1591 E. Temple Way
Los Angeles, CA 90024-5801

i dont know if you have to have my full name or not as well as the 5801 but just put them on anyway to be safe i guess. also long story short: mail gets picked up from that address every tuesday and then i get it in my hands every friday....
so snail mail it is! sorry everyone!!!

ok that aside L.A. is awesome!my area is great, we have almost all of downtown. a ghetto (but not dangerous at all) latino neghborhood/all neighborhoods close to the city are pretty much latino.
dad i forgot to write this on the other email but if you ever go on a virtual tour again here is some more specifics: i live in an apartment l on the west side of the street closer to the beverly side... right by the smart and final store on the corner... also we walk up and down 3rd street more than any other street, also beverlery and then 6th... some of the streets taht we have spent the most time on are: we have an investigator on bonnie brae and 3rd (actually 2 and 1 recent convert all around that intersection) also union (drive i think), rampart, burlington etc (the west side of the city)
since i dont have much time ill briefly tell about thanksgiving- we went to skidrow (san pedro around 5th and 6th streets) check it out but its full of homeless people. its on the other side of our area/on the other side of the city... welll we handed out t shirts that we had made. nice dinner at part member family/inactive family. they are nice. they had three friends over. normal US food even though mom is from guatemala./
i speak a lot of spanish
im walking everywhere because i dont have a bike yet.... its fun! get to really feel the city!
pics soon- i think i can email them from here... slash ill mail my usb drive when i get it.... but i want to email some pics home next monday when i have more time so you can put them in the family x mas card- are you doing one this year??

love you!!!!!!!!

sorry i didnt have much time, i will next week but i had a lot of emails to read... everyone- pleaaaase switch to snail mail!!!

Elder Myers Nov 24, 2009

First companion in LA  Elder Cooley

hello from sunny (still) LA!
its really confusing because with the weather the way it is i feel like we should be preparing for 4th of july season not thanksgiving/christmas season. Except all the latin moms say "Hace frio" or basically its cold and take pity on us except that its not haha. It does get down to the 60s in the night. freezing i know. people are pulling out the jackets and beenies and hoods, even during the day. its pretty ridiculous. i wore shorts and a t shirt for most of the day because we played zone vs zone turkey bowel. we played two 45 min games today. we played against the zone that elder riska (my mtc companion is on). It was pretty fun! And after I had my first In 'n Out expierence at the busiest one in the world- Inglewood right by LAX. Ill have to say that its probably my favorite fast food burger joint...

I speak a lot of spanish- most of our work is in spanish- all of our door and street stuff is spanish and most of the lessons are too. All of our dinner appointments except one part member family (the mom is a latina from guatemala but the dad is white or a gringo haha...) and they have a daughter who just finsished up at BYU provo. We are eating thanksgiving with them. we have to be in by 7 on thanksgiving, but we get to spend a 1.5 hours instead of the usual 1 hour or we can go to two houses and spend an hour each.... and before that we are going to make shirts for the homeless people on skidrow (nickname of a street downtownish that is supposed to have a crazy amount of homeless poeple on it. we are going to put scriptures on them and the go hand them out.
i went downtown for the first time last week. it was very different from chicago. not as busy very very hilly and some really cool buildings.but all in all not a lot of buildings....

now we only have 1 guy with a baptismal date. his name is steven he is one of the only people we teach in english. he is a senior and his mom and dad only speak spanish pretty much but he doesnt speak too much spanish, he mostly responds to them in english. he reads the book of mormon every night and highlights parts that he has questions in,... and his date is now the first sunday of december- the bishop made us change it so more members could go to it...
the other guy named anthony we are probably going to drop- he is non escogido, i dont know the phrase they use in english but its from d&c 20:37 you could check. but the direct translation is "choice" people. we are called to reap the white field already to harvest. its going to be hard dropping him but he isnt taking it seriously and not keeping his commitments like coming to church (he has made excuses the past two sundays) and he didnt keep commitments with the sisters before us. He is in his 40s and lives with his mom because he is blind and she has a lot of control over him and she doesnt like the missionaries. so well see if he is still serious and if its just his mom... the sisters taught both of them before. anthony more recently like in october and steven like 5 months ago...

on a more positive note! its great getting to know the members in the spanish and english wards! we eat dinner at members, less actives or part member families about 5 times a week. 99% of them are from the spanish ward. they are so nice and humble! the LOVE the missionaries! so we get to know them over dinner, share a spiritual lesson/thought and then ask for referals and then leave... slowly (its slower than my talkative self would like but i know that my spanish is improving like crazy! im as good as my trainer who has been out for 7 monthsish, granted he was in beginning spanish and worked in malibu-97% english for all of his time before this but still i know that i am being very blessed with that!) my trainer (elder cooley) and i get along very well! we have a lot of good laughs together! we talk to some very fun people on the street as you can imagine! i love walking around in our area and just talking to people on the way to our appointments.

another family worth mentioning is the chavez family. they are soooo nice and we almost always teach the whole extended family (the granparents live with them like in mexico- they came from mex about a year ago i think maybe 3 i dunno... and then some of the wife's (named maria like everyone else we talked to in the latin world haha) 8 brothers live in the arpartment in front of their house. and so we teach the grandma, mom-maria, dad tomas, marias brother jorge, daughter ana and niece gisele and then last lesson with theother brother of maria and his wife but i forget their names. we had spicy chile tostadas (flat tacos) that were delicious. they are so nice!! and we expect a bunch of them at church next sunday!

and finally business:
i dont know if you sent the shirts- could you by any chance send a pocket from one of dads old grungy shirts? i want to ask a member to sow it onto one of my polo shirts maybe.... if you think thats a bad idea i wont.... i cant decide if its a bad idea or not... or maybe illl take it to a tailors and have them do it. i have only seen a couple cleaners in our area (the best named one is def casa de cleaners haha) i havent been into any so i dont know if they would do that weird of a job or how much it would be... i think i might send one home to save for after my mission because i LOVE them-because of the spread collar :) i hope you didnt stress over picking the right shirt at nordstroms, just in case you havent sent them my next size is 15.5 and i wear a 37 or 38 sleeve i think. my suit size is a 37 i know for sure... im sorry i didnt say the size in the other email im sorry!! thanks so much!!!
i think it will be fine just to email me, its free and im pretty sure just as fast, if not faster (the ZLs pick up mail every tuesday and we get it in our hands firday morning) and im usually fine on time on the comp- i have the full hour this week (and always from now on pretty much) i jsut didnt last week long story...

my companion and i are indeed flushing the area.in fact its technically a new area because they split the sisters area in half and now the sisters have half of the old area and we have half of the old area...
i have like 10-15 pills left...

we did not sleep in the mission home the first night... in our apartments...

sorry thats all i have time to respond to, but please keep me updated! i love hearing about the family!!!! tell emma and lucy not to stress about school and ACTs!also yeah- i wished i had applied myself more! i could ahve taken a much better advantage of an AMAZING school...

oh and my bike came- ill pick it up tomorrow because we are all (the people i came in with from the MTC and their trainers) going down to the mission office for a training meeting (13 day training)...

oh and next monday im going to give you the email addresses of my teachers so you can forward some of emials if you want... one of my teachers told me he would like that...

also can you make sure you are saving these emials? maybe printing them out.... imsure thats something i want to save...

ooh and im looking for a scripture case online if i have time, (LDS.org only site we are allowed to go on...) so i think thats the only christmas pres black leather... for a triple and santa biblia


i love you!!!!!!!

Elder Myers Nov 16, 2009

hey sorry i only have 12 minutes now... long story but next p day ill have a full hour...

1 last business item: could you please send me 2-3 long sleeve white shirts? the gold tree or whatever ones work great, but could you see if they come in fitted because i look like a balloon... its just that my Rl ones dont have pockets and i kind of need them- we wear our suit pants all day until 6 (in between general conferences) and then just put our jacket in our backpacks... and i dont like wearing short sleeves with jackets... and at some point it mayyyy dip down to not 70 all day... but yeah maybe its an early christmas present....? thanks so much!

ok a little bit about my area- its called north downtown. we live on s lafayette park place. my boundery is on the N: bevelery/1st street E its the LA river (so i have a lot of downtown in it but we havent gone that far east because we are on foot in a bike area...) on the S its 6th street and on the W its hoover... check it out on google maps! its a fun area- my trainer elder cooley is from washington state but grew up in hawaii (he is white though- his dad is in military) he spent the past 6 months in his first area- malibu. way dif from ours- we see about 3 white people on the street- almost all latinos with a few koreans... its not an amazing part of town (which means its fun!!!) but we live in the nicest street in our area- there are people who pull out of the garages from the apt next to us in beamers... but thats not the norm for our area- we have been offered drugs once (just marijuana) talked to 4 drunk hobos and seen 1 hooker and 2 strippers... hahaha but enough about that except LA people love their graffiti! holy cow wayyyy more than chi or NYC. but dont worry its totally safe, just not the north shore... or compton/watts either....there were sisters in our area before us so dont you fret....!

anyway we have 2 people with a baptismal date! nov 29! i almost got to confirm someone yesterday at church but he didnt show... i went to the english ward (75 people came to church i counted) and my comp went to the spanish ward (diff buildings so we went on splits...) i went to priesthood in the spanish ward... both of them have 6 (including us) companionships in them....

tell grandma david HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! no time to write an email to her, will try to write her a letter, but as of now we havent found a drop box in our area hahaha...

LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Myers Nov 3 2009

ok so first off i love everyone!
i have no idea if i will be able to email next tues- the day before i leave so yeah...

but FLIGHT INFO- 8:25 Utah time departure on delta, direct flight to LAX. report to front desk here at MTC at 5AM. as for the call i have been asking around and not sure if i can- but i have heard that i can more than i have heard that i cant... ill try to firm up a time but probs between 6AM-745AM utah time i think....

anyway.... but i CAN email in the field (talked to an elder who long story short is back in the MTC now but served in LA... he also said that they didnt have any bikes because they got stolen too much, so just a car, and its safer that way. he was there for two transfers... so wait on the bike if possible? or if you have talked to someone from the mission like one of the people working in the office there than thats cool and forget what i just said...) anyway- i can email in the field- every P- day, read letters everyday, write letters only on p day... so could you pass along my email address? (williammyers7@myldsmail.net) thanks so much! also my address to the mission home please- just email it to whoever you forward this email too- sorry i dont have it memorized and i dont have it with me right now at the comp...

ok continuing with the business items: (please respond asap in a dear elder because they are all pretty time sensitive... thanks so much!)
-how much did that small fan cost? im thinking about sending it home becasue i wont use it- i have been fine without white noise and besides i hate fans because of my contacts hahaha. so if its more than like ten bucks and you would use it ill send it home... otherwise ill leave it with some elders or just ship it to myself with my box o junk. but do expect a letter with my planner from the MTC so you can see what i did everyday yay! and other stuff maybe
-my medication: found out from the doc that it is AGAINST FEDERAL law to send them so he said that all that stuff goes through mission pres, dont worry ill make sure to get focalin xr 30mg. but i kind of need to know/he needs to know whats up with my insurance... btw the doc also said that i was pre selected to stay in US because that med/all ADHD meds cant be taken out of US so i would either have to not put it and not take it or stay in US and im going to LA. dont worry im not mad! im pumped for LA!
-bag- im looking for a smallish bag but i think i might as well get it in the field so unless you find something AMAZING and RIDICULOUSLY cheap dont bother and ill buy one myself in the field... i want to see whats up there- all i know is that you dont carry around preach my gospel and stuff like that... so yeah...
-i got the package and my district and i LOVED it! we have had three root beer sessions to relax after the day... haha and dont worry they liked the scones and i told them that they were even better usually and they were pretty impressed!
- PLEASE SEND THAT BOOK that everyone wrote in from the ward and the moffats and that dad was finishing writing in- i want to have my district and others sign it...

ok sorry that i had so many business items... but yeah getting ready to leave and stuff- i have a lot to care of before LA! YAY

thanks for letter and im glad the funeral was good and that you got to visit with grandpa and grandma (i wrote them a letter today) especially that jack loves talking with them! and speaking of him- my companion (whom im getting along well with) and elder whitney (from cafe rio) LOVE reading his dear elders! he is hilarious!

to answer your other questions- i havent seen john scott yet which is kinda weird, is he in beginning or intermediate spanish?. i liked hosting- i think i kept a sister from crying so thats good... haha and io get to host again tomorrow. i know how the first day works pretty well because that elder i was talking about told me. meet pres and ZLs at airport. luggege taken to mission home. i go tract/work then meet back up for dinner and interviews with pres at mission home... then regular day the next day in my area../... no idea where i sleeep..

ok 5 mins left and i want to tell you a story/that i participated in two more blessings- i annointed my teacher with oil (bro vance because he was really sick last week) and participated in blessing of comfort with and hermana in my district...
also we taught daniel this week- he is billed as a "real" investigator in the place where you prac taeaching but he NEVER broke character and didnt care if we prac teaching skills -when you teach a teacher or volunteer they let a lot of stuff slide so we can continue teaching but yeah he was like i dont need religion in my life, you are being pushy, character was a drug dealer in business school, from mexico (actually is though) and so yeah we "taught" in spanish meaning we tried to get him to leason and it was veryyyy difficult. we have another appointment this thu so yeah
love you